Friday, February 22, 2013

Know Your LGBT History - WKRP in Cincinnati: 'Les on a Ledge'

As seen by this 1978 episode of WKRP in Cincinnati, members of the transgender community and the idea that someone would attempt suicide after being called gay were funny topics once upon a time without hardly any reprisal.
Not so much today.

While we continue to do the work to gain equality, let's never forget how far we have come or where we have come from.

3 comments:

Gay Power, Gay Politics, the hateful smear masquerading as a documentary about the gay community in San Francisco, is the single best example from that time of how far we've come since.

Gay Power, Gay Politics was bigoted and ugly, and CBS aired it just months before an election on sexual orientation anti-discrimination legislation in the nearby city of San Jose and Santa Clara county. (Both measures lost heavily.)

CBS totally got away with airing its propaganda. As far as I could tell, we were powerless to do anything about it.

At first, I used to think that WKRP was stupid and mindless. Then I got to watching it on late night reruns after work and realized there was something more. At least, I came to think there was something more going on. They touched on a lot of issues that other shows did not - I remember one where Herb had a drinking problem. By exaggerating the trans and homophobia for this episode, they helped point out how ridiculous - and at the same time, damaging - it was without making people too uncomfortable. And they were uncomfortable issues then, but by bringing them up, even in this format, they were at least shining light where a lot of people hadn't, or wouldn't, look. And they were not derisive of the issues, either.

About Me

Alvin McEwen is 46-year-old African-American gay man who resides in Columbia, SC.
McEwen's blog, Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, and writings have been mentioned by Americablog.com, Goodasyou.org, People for the American Way, PageOneQ.com, The Washington Post, Raw Story, The Advocate, Media Matters for America, Crooksandliars.com, Thinkprogress.org, Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish, Melissa Harris-Perry, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, The Washington Blade, and Foxnews.com.
In addition, he is also a past contributor to Pam's House Blend,Justice For All, LGBTQ Nation, and Alternet.org. He is a present contributor to the Daily Kos and the Huffington Post,
He is the 2007 recipient of the Harriet Daniels Hancock Volunteer of the Year Award and the 2010 recipient of the Order of the Pink Palmetto from the SC Pride Movement as well as the 2009 recipient of the Audre Lorde/James Baldwin Civil Rights Activist Award from SC Black Pride. In addition, he is a three-time nominee of the Ed Madden Media Advocacy Award from SC Pride.